Washington, DC, November 1, 1999 – In an open letter published in today’s Roll Call newspaper, Competitive Enterprise Institute Distinguished Fellow Jack Kemp invited the Pew Center on Global Climate Change to co-sponsor a series of debates on global warming policy with CEI.

The letter recognizes that both CEI and the Pew Center have produced substantive and thoughtful reviews of the science, economic, and public policy implications of global warming, yet strongly disagree on the conclusions.

"The American people should have the opportunity to review the evidence on both sides of this issue and then make their decision," Kemp states in the letter. "Our organizations have the ability to grant the American people that opportunity."

A recent $11 million dollar advertising campaign by radical environmental groups designed to scare Americans with scientifically inaccurate claims about the possible effects of climate change spurred the letter from Mr. Kemp. "CEI does not believe – and we hope the Pew Center would not either – that 30-second sound bites are an acceptable approach to resolving an issue that would have such serious impacts on the peoples of the planet."

Mr. Kemp, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former member of Congress, joined CEI as its first Distinguished Fellow in the Spring of 1999. His work at CEI focuses on international environmental policies that affect people all over the US and the world.

CEI, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group founded in 1984, is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information, please contact Emily McGee, director of media relations, at 202-331-1010, ext. 209.